Manchester is purple
This project reimagines the spaces surrounding sport as inclusive social environments that extend beyond professionalism. Set within a public sports facility, the design prioritises non-professional users—spectators, families, and community members—who are often neglicted by conventional sports architecture. The building is elevated to maximise visibility and openness, supported by a lightweight timber and steel structure, and programmed with adaptable zones that respond to diverse needs and seasonal use.
Developed through a disability-led methodology shaped by my physical limitations living with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, the project resists reliance on standardised digital workflows. Instead, it embraces alternative modes of production—tactile model-making, soundscapes, and projection-based experimentation. Within these constraints, the project finds its strength.
Occupying a space between speculative design and practical realism, it contributes to a broader call for architectural education to reflect the real conditions of practice. By positioning disability as a creative methodology, the work challenges the visual perfectionism of the discipline and proposes a more adaptive, responsive, and narratively rich design process. It asserts that architectural authorship can emerge from constraint, and that design rigour is not contingent on normative tools, but on critical intention and exploration.
